Hi  and happy 2009! They say no news is good news, which explains why we haven’t been in touch for so long! There is certainly plenty to report so let’s get up to speed. We have talented new faces to introduce, and we've got a bunch of exciting new sites to show off.

Marcus Josty joined our design team early last year. He tracked us down all the way from Lucerne in Switzerland where he trained in Graphic Design and ran his own web and print design company. He has been working on some very New Zealand focused sites and has enjoyed fathoming what makes it so special to be a Kiwi. His conclusion, “it’s a great mix of really knowing your business and being able to do it seriously in a pair of jandals”.

Account Manager and Site Architect Mike Cox is the latest addition to our ‘All Talk Department’. His is a face you are likely to meet as he takes a lead role in managing some of our key accounts. And he's already shown that he's got a few good hacky moves to bring to the hack circle too!

We're really proud of the new Kiwibank public website. It has a brand new look and feel along with a full revamp of the content and site structure. We had a lot of fun creating the Kiwibank animated 'world' on the home page of the site, which has lots of scope for future development!

Like most of our sites, usability was of paramount importance. We did user testing at various stages in the development to make sure that it was easy to use. After all, what use is a pretty site if you can't find what you're looking for! 

This is just the start - shortly we will be launching Kiwibank's revolutionary new internet banking system. So watch this space!

Feeling a bit green from always making great sites for other people we decided it was about time to give springload.co.nz a dose of our own medicine. The new site introduces the whole team – putting faces to names, explaining what we do, how we do it and why we love doing it. You can see our latest work and read the teams’ blog 'Love the Web' for thoughts and insights into all sorts of web design conundrums and innovations. We would love to hear what you think so please give us your feedback!

Being conscious about the environment, and our impact on it, is really important to us. We spend as much spare time as we can enjoying the great outdoors so joining carboNZero has been a great way to take active steps to help preserve what we have out there. The programme gives us internationally recognised tools to measure, manage and mitigate our greenhouse gas emissions. Did you know that you can reduce your electricity usage by a whopping 10% just by closing down computers, turning off monitors and photocopiers at the end of each day?

2008 has been a really busy year and we are very proud that our work has been recognised by a number of awards. Our thanks go to the industry judges for their excellent decisions and to our clients for their inspiring briefs! In the cabinet we have:

• Interactive Media Award, Best in Class (2008 NZ International Arts Festival)
• TUANZ Commerce Award (Kiwibank, Mobile Internet Banking)
  
• Qantas Media Awards for Website Design (2008 NZ International Arts Festival)
  
• Silver BeST Awards for Website Design (2008 NZ International Arts Festival)
  
• Bronze BeST Awards for Website Design (Interislander)
  

Cheers from all the team at Springload.

Enjoy the sunshine - remember that sunblock!